ENEMY COUNTRIES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 12 October 1916, Page 5

ENEMY COUNTRIES.

ANOTHER WAR CREDIT

FOOD PROBLEM IN GERMANY. UNCOMFORTABLE ,IF NOT SERIOUS. LACK OF FAT AND OILS. WHOLE NATION GROWING THINNER. AMSTERDAM, Oct. 11. The Koelnische Vo_:z|_tung states that the Government will ask the Reichstag for a war credit of twelv.e thousand million marks.. | Replying to the Kaiser's congratulations on the twenty-fifth' anniversary of his accession, .the King of Wurtemburg said: "May God.grant us a speedy and honorable peace.*'' l LONDON, Oct. 11. j Mr Curtin, the American journalist, writing in the Daily Mail on the food situation in Germany, says that AnstroHungary is butterless, but there is war bread, and acorn coffee, sweetened with saccharine in a form that is nauseating at breakfasts. There is no visible deficiency of food for the army and navy On active service, but the 'reserves .and Landsturmere go very short. An eminent German chemist told Mr Cm-tin-that the three prime difficulties were (1) The necessity of propping up the wretched Austrians with a stiffening of Prussians and Bavarians; (2) the absence of heavy Chilian nitrates essential for productivity^of the farms. The nitrates extracted from air served well in 1916, because it was a damp year, but the absence of imported fertilisers means the steady decrease of sugar and other staple products. Lastly, the oil difficulty, which was almost insuperable. Many thousands of acres had been sown with sunflowers and poopies, but only small results were obtained. Mr Curtin adds: Personally I lost ten pounds in weight in the last three months. The theatres and music halls are well attended, horse racing is steadily maintained, and munition i workers are squandering money in diamonds and1 pearls, which have never been so freely bought before. 1 Mr Curtin goes on to state that the German food problem is not serious, ■ but extremely uncomfortable. Some importations are plentiful,' particularly chocolate, Dutch cheese, and- Scotch whisky. There are plenty of sardines t and Baltic fish. Freak foods include I seal, meat and polar bear. The lack of fat and oil is the greatest problem, de^ j suite various, ."substitutes, such as sun- ! flower and sardine oils. The whole naj tion is growing thinner. Food gifts are ' now the best presents /between friends. j The increasing theft of food tickets indicates the growing acuteness of the problem.